UNC researchers ramp up effort to find cure for AIDS

Having thrust itself into the spotlight of the global scientific community, UNC might one day become the site of the ultimate discovery: a cure for AIDS.

A study by Dr. Myron Cohen that demonstrated the effectiveness of early drug treatment in inhibiting the spread of AIDS was named in December the 2011 Breakthrough of the Year in the journal Science.

Cohen, public health director of the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, said efforts to invent a plausible and practical vaccine will be amplified because of the success of his study.

“Creating a vaccine is the holy grail in prevention research, and we will re-double our efforts to make a vaccine,” he said.

Vaccine research is already in the works. Ronald Swanstrom, director of the UNC Center for AIDS Research, has been developing a HIV vaccine to decrease transmission of the virus.

“The virus has proteins on the surface and those proteins are responsible for allowing the virus to fuse into the cell,” he said in a November interview.

“To make antibodies to block the virus, you need to make them against this protein.”

He and a colleague in the department of biochemistry, Nikolay Dokholyan, are designing a protein to use for the vaccine and hope to be able to determine if it is useful in about three years, Swanstrom said.

Swanstrom is currently applying for a grant from the National Institutes of Health which would fund salaries and animal testing for his study.

“We have to compete in the marketplace of ideas and compete for funding,” he said.

Charles Van Der Horst, a professor in the School of Medicine who teaches a survey course about AIDS in the world, said faculty members receive grants from the NIH and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention based on their talent and past success.

“When we have great success such as we have had over the last 20 years, we are much more likely to be funded,” he said.

Dr. David Margolis is another researcher focused on eradication of the virus. Margolis said his research will focus on therapies to eliminate the virus and strengthen the immune system through a cure.

“HIV can be dormant in cells and be hidden. If a person stops therapy, the infection can start up again,” he said in a November interview.

“We want to find the hidden virus and eradicate it so that if a person stops therapy, there is no reservoir left.”

Margolis said his team is experimenting with the drug VOR, commonly known as Zolinza, because of its ability to disrupt latency in infected cells.

He said his team is testing VOR on animals and humans to determine if the drug depletes the infection in the body completely.

Van Der Horst said he believes Margolis is bringing UNC to the forefront among scientists trying to find a cure.

“Although it is a huge challenge, I do believe that Dr. Margolis has a possibility of finding a cure which will benefit patients infected with HIV.”

Even with national recognition, Cohen is also continuing his research and hopes to keep the global support his work and the University have attracted.

“UNC continues to get support for its work,” he wrote in an email. “But the more we discover, the more help we can use.”

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